One of the most important points in 3C convergences is to increase the convenience in using a personal computer (PC) and to enhance the cooperation between a PC and a presentation device with weak computing capability, such as a TV.
Thus, Microsoft® has proposed a scheme, Sideshow®, in Windows Vista®, which enables some display devices with weak computing capabilities to display the contents of certain application windows in a host. For example, certain application windows on a PC can be redirected to an auxiliary display screen, since a special data transmission format is defined between these applications and the auxiliary display screen, and there exists a mechanism of display redirection between these applications and the operating system. As such, only the window of an application conforming to this standard defined by Microsoft® can be displayed on the auxiliary display screen. Besides, this technique does not allow a user to execute any PC program at the side of the display device.
Further, a remote game system from Intel® attempts to utilize a TV set as the auxiliary display device of a PC for game display. For example, in this system, the virtual video card technique is used to effectuate a control over the PC at the side of the display device. Unfortunately, such a scheme is complex to implement, and if a plurality of auxiliary display devices are present, it is necessary to install a corresponding number of virtual video card drivers.